[Lisa V]

Gloria, I'd say it's more important to look at your ANC and your patterns of response in general when making this determination. Also what your cyclo dosage is.

I say this because we have a plant nursery/farm (we live on the property too), and if my husband had avoided work post-ATG I don't know what we'd do! He did take a few weeks off following the first round, but after round 2 he went back to work immediately after coming home from the hospital. Fortunately for him, he has never been severely neutropenic, but he has been on CsA maintenance for the last 5 years, and (because of his trisomy 8) may have to continue it indefinitely. Presumably for this reason, his WBCs have never quite returned to normal, currently averaging 3.6. His ANC is currently in the 2.1-2.4 range, so his doctor is not concerned, but even when it was around 1.0 he was out there digging in the dirt and being exposed to every kind of mold and bacteria and he didn't have any problems with it.

Mind you, I'm not recommending this for everyone, just saying that everyone has a different tolerance level, and just because you are or were on immune suppressants doesn't necessarily mean you should have to avoid gardening. Better to be on the safe side, but there's no way I could have kept Ken from doing what he loves, and the fact that it's our income was obviously added incentive. We're just lucky that he didn't develop any kind of infection.